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·The capsule was buried more than two centuries ago by Paul
Revere, Samuel Adams

(CNN)More than 200 years after Samuel Adams and
Paul Revere first buried it in Boston, it took an hour to remove all the
objects crammed inside a tiny time capsule.

Onlookers
anxiously watched the unveiling Tuesday, worrying the items might not have
weathered the years very well.

"Could
we actually go through the whole box, or would things prove too fragile to take
out?" said Malcolm Rogers, director of Boston's Museum of Fine Arts.
"It was like brain surgery, with history looking down on us."

Piece
by piece, Pam Hatchfield, head of objects conservation for the museum, removed
each item, whispering "wow" as she first caught a glimpse of some of
them.

Among
the stash Hatchfield removed from the 1795 time capsule: Five folded
newspapers, a Massachusetts commonwealth seal, a title page from Massachusetts
colony records and at least 24 coins.

And at
the bottom, an inscribed rectangular silver plate, "probably made by Paul
Revere and engraved by him," Rogers said.

"That was the treasure at the end," he said.

But getting to it was a painstaking process.

It took
seven hours to remove the time capsule from the Massachusetts State House in
December, and more than four hours before Tuesday evening's ceremony for
officials to loosen the screws that were holding it shut.

The
box-shaped capsule was placed in the State House cornerstone in 1795 by Revere,
the metalsmith, engraver and Revolutionary War hero; Adams, the brewer and
governor of Massachusetts; and William Scollay, a local developer, when
construction began. Revere was responsible for overlaying the State House dome
with copper.

The time capsule measured 5.5 x 7.5 x 1.5 inches, officials
said.

It's not the first time the box has been uncovered. In 1855,
during some other repairs, the time capsule was removed and its contents
cleaned, only to be put back in the cornerstone for almost 160 years --with
a few objects added. The box's materials were noted in reports of the time.

But this time, historians have had the opportunity to go through
the contents with modern tools. After its removal December 11, the box was
taken to the Museum of Fine Arts, X-rayed and given a thorough once-over.

Having an idea about what might be inside was nothing compared
to actually seeing it, Rogers told CNN.

"Though we knew a little bit about what was in the box, it
was a moment of extraordinary excitement as this brass container just the size
of a cigar box was slowly opened with surgical precision, and you suddenly
found yourself in the presence of history," he said.

Newspapers
inside the box were in "amazingly good condition," Hatchfield said.

The
large number of copper coins inside might have helped protect the artifacts,
she said, since copper helps block the growth of fungus.

The
collection of coins recovered from the time capsule included half-cent,
one-cent, half-dime, 10-cent and 25-cent coins. Another set of coins included a
pine tree shilling from 1652 and a copper medal showing George Washington.

"This is the most exciting project I've
ever worked on," a beaming Hatchfield told the crowd after she finished
pulling out all of the box's contents, describing how thrilling it was to be
part of building a bridge between the past and the present.

"This is what we, as conservators, live
for," she said, sharing a fist bump with Michael Comeau, executive
director of the Massachusetts Archives and Commonwealth Museum.

Going forward, conservators will work on
preserving items removed from the time capsule.

They might not unfold the newspapers, Hatchfield said, in order
to protect them.

If they were to go up for sale, the objects inside the box would
fetch a pretty penny -- not because they're rare, but because of the history
behind them, said Sebastian Clarke, an appraiser for the PBS program
"Antiques Roadshow."

"The story's fantastic. George Washington was still the
president of this country until 1797. ... The 17th century coin is maybe a 5 or
6,000-dollar coin, but with this story, the value increases tenfold," he
said.

Experts say they haven't been able to confirm whether Paul
Revere made the silver plate, which commemorates the placement of the
legislature's cornerstone by Adams and Revere on July 4, 1795.

If Revere did make it, Clarke said, "the value has to be in
the hundreds of thousands of dollars. It's magnificent."

But don't expect to see these objects showing up at any auction.

After the conservation process is finished, they'll go on
display at the museum. And eventually, the time capsule and its contents will
be placed again in the cornerstone of the Massachusetts State House, said
William F. Galvin, secretary of the commonwealth.

One question still remains, Galvin said: Will officials add
anything new to the time capsule before they put it back?

"The governor has wisely suggested that we might," he
said, "so we'll think about it."

Today marks the 225th anniversary of the national Thanksgiving holiday proclaimed by George Washington, as a way to give thanks for the Constitution, and honor religious and civil liberty.

View photo

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Before 1789, Thanksgiving had been observed in different ways in different regions. And during the Revolutionary War, the Continental Congress issued various proclamations – several a year at one point – for national days of prayer and giving thanks, usually in November and December.

President Washington had been asked by the First Congress in September 1789 to issue a proclamation from the new government under the Constitution after the lawmakers debated and passed a resolution introduced by Elias Boudinot of New Jersey in the House.

The resolution asked, “That a joint committee of both Houses be directed to wait upon the President of the United States, to request that he would recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging, with grateful hearts, the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a Constitution of government for their safety and happiness.”

Five members of the First Congress, including Boudinot, approached Washington with the idea, and the President issued the proclamation (the second in presidential history) on October 3, 1789.

President Washington sent the Thanksgiving Proclamation to the states’ governors and asked for the leaders to make sure it was posted and published for all to see.

“I must request the favor of you to have published and made known in your State in the way and manner that shall be most agreeable to yourself,” he wrote.

The Thanksgiving Proclamation came two years before the Bill of Rights was ratified in 1791, but its tone and message is remindful of the constitutional protections of liberty in all forms that the Founders had fought for and later enshrined in Philadelphia in 1787.

Washington said he wanted the people to be thankful “for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted; for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed.”

The proclamation also makes it clear that the Thanksgiving Day, in Washington’s opinion, should be a day of prayer, especially for lawmakers and government officials.

“We may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations, and beseech Him to pardon our national and other trangressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed,” Washington asked.

The President established “Thursday, the 26th day of November next” as the Thanksgiving Day. In subsequent years, several other Presidents issued proclamations infrequently.

It was President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 who issued the next major Thanksgiving Day proclamation, and every President since Lincoln has issued an annual proclamation.

“I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens,” Lincoln said.

History of Veterans Day

World War I – known at the time as “The Great War” - officially ended when the Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, in the Palace of Versailles outside the town of Versailles, France. However, fighting ceased seven months earlier when an armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, between the Allied nations and Germany went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. For that reason, November 11, 1918, is generally regarded as the end of “the war to end all wars.”

Soldiers of the 353rd Infantry near a church at Stenay, Meuse in France, wait for the end of hostilities. This photo was taken at 10:58 a.m., on November 11, 1918, two minutes before the armistice ending World War I went into effect

In November 1919, President Wilson proclaimed November 11 as the first commemoration of Armistice Day with the following words: "To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations…"

The original concept for the celebration was for a day observed with parades and public meetings and a brief suspension of business beginning at 11:00 a.m.

The United States Congress officially recognized the end of World War I when it passed a concurrent resolution on June 4, 1926, with these words:

Whereas the 11th of November 1918, marked the cessation of the most destructive, sanguinary, and far reaching war in human annals and the resumption by the people of the United States of peaceful relations with other nations, which we hope may never again be severed, and

Whereas it is fitting that the recurring anniversary of this date should be commemorated with thanksgiving and prayer and exercises designed to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations; and

Whereas the legislatures of twenty-seven of our States have already declared November 11 to be a legal holiday: Therefore be it Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), that the President of the United States is requested to issue a proclamation calling upon the officials to display the flag of the United States on all Government buildings on November 11 and inviting the people of the United States to observe the day in schools and churches, or other suitable places, with appropriate ceremonies of friendly relations with all other peoples.

An Act (52 Stat. 351; 5 U. S. Code, Sec. 87a) approved May 13, 1938, made the 11th of November in each year a legal holiday—a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as "Armistice Day." Armistice Day was primarily a day set aside to honor veterans of World War I, but in 1954, after World War II had required the greatest mobilization of soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen in the Nation’s history; after American forces had fought aggression in Korea, the 83rd Congress, at the urging of the veterans service organizations, amended the Act of 1938 by striking out the word "Armistice" and inserting in its place the word "Veterans." With the approval of this legislation (Public Law 380) on June 1, 1954, November 11th became a day to honor American veterans of all wars.

Later that same year, on October 8th, President Dwight D. Eisenhower issued the first "Veterans Day Proclamation" which stated: "In order to insure proper and widespread observance of this anniversary, all veterans, all veterans' organizations, and the entire citizenry will wish to join hands in the common purpose. Toward this end, I am designating the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs as Chairman of a Veterans Day National Committee, which shall include such other persons as the Chairman may select, and which will coordinate at the national level necessary planning for the observance. I am also requesting the heads of all departments and agencies of the Executive branch of the Government to assist the National Committee in every way possible."

In 1958, the White House advised VA's General Counsel that the 1954 designation of the VA Administrator as Chairman of the Veterans Day National Committee applied to all subsequent VA Administrators. Since March 1989 when VA was elevated to a cabinet level department, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs has served as the committee's chairman.

The Uniform Holiday Bill (Public Law 90-363 (82 Stat. 250)) was signed on June 28, 1968, and was intended to ensure three-day weekends for Federal employees by celebrating four national holidays on Mondays: Washington's Birthday, Memorial Day, Veterans Day, and Columbus Day. It was thought that these extended weekends would encourage travel, recreational and cultural activities and stimulate greater industrial and commercial production. Many states did not agree with this decision and continued to celebrate the holidays on their original dates.

The first Veterans Day under the new law was observed with much confusion on October 25, 1971. It was quite apparent that the commemoration of this day was a matter of historic and patriotic significance to a great number of our citizens, and so on September 20th, 1975, President Gerald R. Ford signed Public Law 94-97 (89 Stat. 479), which returned the annual observance of Veterans Day to its original date of November 11, beginning in 1978. This action supported the desires of the overwhelming majority of state legislatures, all major veterans service organizations and the American people.

Veterans Day continues to be observed on November 11, regardless of what day of the week on which it falls. The restoration of the observance of Veterans Day to November 11 not only preserves the historical significance of the date, but helps focus attention on the important purpose of Veterans Day: A celebration to honor America's veterans for their patriotism, love of country, and willingness to serve and sacrifice for the common good.

• In the United States, there are about 82.5 million mothers. (source: US Census Bureau)

• about 96% of American consumers take part in some way in Mother's Day (source: Hallmark)

• Mother's Day is widely reported as the peak day of the year for long distance telephone calls

• There are more than 23,000 florists in the United States with a total of more than 125,000 employees. Colombia is the leading foreign supplier of cut flowers and fresh flower buds to the US. California produces two-thirds of domestic production of cut flowers. (source: US Census Bureau)

• Mother's Day is the busiest day of the year for many restaurants

• Retailers report that Mother's Day is the second highest gift-giving holiday in the United States (Christmas is the highest).

• Most popular month for having babies in the US is August, and most popular weekday is Tuesday. (source: US Census Bureau)

• about twice as many young women were childfree in the year 2000 as in the 1950s (source: Ralph Fevre, The Guardian, Manchester, March 26, 2001)

• In the US, 82% of women ages 40-44 are mothers. This compares to 90% in 1976. (source: US Census Bureau)

• In Utah and Alaska, women on the average will have three children before the end of their childbearing years. Overall, the average in the United States is two. (source: US Census Bureau)

• In 2002, the 55% of American women with infant children were in the workforce, compared to 31% in 1976, and down from 59% in 1998. In 2002, there were 5.4 million stay-at-home mothers in the US. (source: US Census Bureau)